election 2016

A year-end overview of 2016, in which Illinois finds itself in much the same situation as it was 12 months ago, but with an even deeper budget hole and increasingly dire straits for social services and higher education.

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to repeal the federal law known as Obamacare. A group representing Illinois hospitals is warning that doing so without a replacement plan could have dire consequences.

Democratic leaders met for the the first time in months. Judging from their diverging responses, you might wonder if they were actually in the same room. Meanwhile AFSCME members rallied after getting bad news from the state labor board.

Republicans made gains in the Illinois House and Senate, but Democrats cleaned up in statewide races. Meanwhile, Illinois government is still without a balanced budget — does the election change anything?

As of about 9:30 Tuesday night, many who had gathered at the Corner Pub & Grill in Springfield seemed to believe Hillary Clinton could still pull ahead by gaining more electoral votes than Donald Trump was racking up. For those hoping for that outcome, it was wishful thinking.

Illinois legislators will only get a brief post-election respite from politics; a week from Wednesday they’ll be back in Springfield to begin the veto session.The current makeup of the General Assembly will remain in place for that, but come the new year -- when the Capitol welcomes a new set of lawmakers elected Tuesday night -- the balance of power will shift, slightly.

Kirk recovered from a debilitating stroke in 2012, but was always going to have a hard time holding onto the seat. He won the seat in the Tea Party wave election of 2010, and Illinois tends to vote more Democratic in presidential election years.

Today, as results come in across the country, NPR reporters will be updating this breaking news blog in real time. The NPR Politics team, along with Member station reporters, will be providing live updates in the form of photo, video, commentary and analysis for both national and local contested races.

This year, Illinois Republicans, backed by campaign cash from Gov. Bruce Rauner, are looking to knock some Democratic incumbents out of their seats in the General Assembly. At the same time, Democrats in the state are trying to pick off Republican lawmakers. Lee Enterprises’ Statehouse Bureau Chief Dan Petrella recently wrote a story on the power of incumbency and campaign spending in state legislative races. Illinois Issues editor Jamey Dunn recently sat down with Petrella to talk about it.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is encouraging his supporters to keep an eye out for possible voting fraud on Election Day.

In most states, including Illinois, poll watchers are required to get credentials from the State Board of Elections or local election authorities. “Somebody just can’t show up at the polling place (and say,) ‘I want to be a poll watcher. I want to watch.’ You can’t do that. You have to have credentials,” says Jim Tenuto, assistant executive director of the Illinois State Board of Elections.

There wasn't supposed to be an election for a statewide constitutional officer this year, but Democrats essentially foisted one, following the sudden death of Republican Judy Baar Topinka. That's led to an expensive, competitive race for comptroller this year --- a race that could show who's winning the war of public opinion in Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan's battle for Illinois' future.

Who knows what would have happened had Democrats held onto the governor's office in 2014?

After producer Zoe Chace pointed out that the Republican leadership this year seemed like figures in a tragic opera, watching their party turned upside down, we set about looking for songwriters. We explained that we didn’t want to make fun of these politicians. We didn’t want to mock. Just the opposite. We wanted the composers to do what great songwriters always do: take us inside someone’s head and help us feel what they feel. Here are all three songs.

U.S. Senator Mark Kirk says he apologized, and that apology was accepted, so it's time to move on from a controversial comment he made at last week's debate minimizing his opponent's family legacy of military service. The Republican gave an interview to public radio on Wednesday; click below to listen to the bulk of it.

A new state law requires that high school civics courses cover current and controversial events. The requirement kicked in during an election cycle when adults are struggling to have civil conversations about politics.

Sen. Mark Kirk and U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth participated in their first televised presidential debate this week. Kirk made a comment about his opponent's ethnic heritage for which he later felt compelled to apologize. We'll ask Charlie Wheeler why voters should care about the special election for Illinois comptroller. And Sen. Dick Durbin might mean it when he says he isn't interested in taking on Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2018.

Illinois voters aren't getting many chances to see their candidates for U.S. Senate face off. Democratic Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth and the incumbent -- Republican Mark Kirk -- met Thursday in Springfield. It was the first of only two televised debates, and their only downstate match-up.

The presidential race is capturing most voters' attention. But here in Illinois, there's record-breaking spending going into races for the General Assembly. Hanging in the balance is the state of Illinois, or at least its budget, anyway.